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MARSH 


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Dis course   ...   1 


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DISCOURSE 

BY 

LUTHER  R.  MARSH,  ESQ., 


BEFORE    THE 


of  Physicians  and  S 


110, 


OF  NEW  YORK 


TO    ITS 


GRADUATING  CLASS  OF  STUDENTS, 

Pronounced  at  Steinway  Hall 

IVI^Y  16,  1882. 


/mi 


DISCOURSE 

BY 

LUTHER  R.  MARSH,  Esq., 

BEFORE   THE 

College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  of  New  York, 

TO    ITS 

GRADUATING  CLASS  OF  STUDENTS, 

PRONOUNCED   AT  STEINWAY  HALL. 

J^LJ^IT    16,    1882. 


Gentlemen  of  the  Faculty  op  the  College   of 

Physicians  and  Surgeons  ; 
And  Young  Men  of  the  Graduating  Class  : 

There  are  topics  on  which  I  should  feel  at 
home.  There  are  audiences  which  I  could  .ad- 
dress without  a  tremor.  But  to  gather  up  such 
stray  and  desultory  thoughts  as  have  occurred  to 
me,  relating  to  a  profession  not  my  own — some 
of  them  perchance  erroneous — and  deliver  them 
to  such  an  audience  of  culture,  embracing  so 
many  men  of  distinction  in  their  callings,  is  an 
attempt  which  may  well  make  me  pause.  I  rely 
on  your  magnanimity  to  pardon  my  temerity,  and 
forgive  my  mistakes.  And  yet  it  is  not  so  wholly 
incongruous,  as  it   may  at  first  seem,  that  a  law- 


yer  should  be  invited  to  speak  to  the  Medical  and 
Surgical  professions;  for,  to  a  certain  extent,  they 
are  related  pursuits.  We  need  not  trace  back 
their  philosophies  far,  without  finding  a  relation- 
ship and  unity,  suggesting  that  they  may  have 
sprung  from  a  common  ancestry.  Though  seem- 
ing so  different,  they  are  yet  closely  allied. 
They  find  their  point  of  contact — linked  by  a 
hyphen — in  Medical-Jurisprudence.  Nor  can  we 
easily  tell  which  side  of  the  hyphen  is  the  more 
important.  Yet  it.  must  be  admitted  that,  to 
your  side  of  it,  united  science  is  indebted  for 
its  best  development.  No  lawyer's  library,  nor 
any  doctor's  library,  is  complete,  which  does  not 
contain  that  work,  which,  beginning  so  small,  has 
come  to  be  so  large — the  admirable  treatise  of 
Doctor  T.  Eomeyn  Beck,  the  father  of  the  science 
in  America.  Nor  should  his  indebtedness  to  Doc- 
tor John  B.  Beck,  of  New  York,  his  faithful 
brother,  be  forgotten. 

That  medical- jurisprudence  should  be  placed  on 
the  best  basis,  has  been  made  painfully  conspic- 
uous in  a  late  case  of  national  importance.  In- 
deed, it  is  a  question  worthy  of  solemn  consid- 
eration, whether  it  would  not  be  better  to  bring 
the  experience  and  practical  knowledge  of  a 
board  of  medico-legal  constitution  to  pass  upon 
all  cases  of  alleged  insanity.  A  large  and  pros- 
perous association  in  our  city  attests  the  interest 
felt  in  this  joint  study,  where  members  of  the 
three  professions   mingle  in  a  common  cause,  and 


whose  growing  library  already  surprises  us  by 
its  variety  and  extent.  Certainly,  your  side  of 
the  hyphen  is  the  most  interesting  in  study.  As 
the  grandson  of  one  doctor,  and  the  nephew  of 
another,  I  used,  in  youth,  to  range  at  large 
through  their  well-filled  shelves,  far  more  fas- 
cinated by  them  than  by  the  abstruse  studies  of 
the  law — preferring,  greatly,  the  Zoonomia  of 
Erasmus  Darwin  to  the  abstractions  of  Black- 
stone,  and  the  Physiology  of  Eicherand  to  the 
subtleties  of  Coke.  But  there  is  one  difference 
in  our  practice  which  may  be  noted;  for,  it  is 
said  that  the  lawyers  take  their  unsuccessful 
cases  up,  and  the  doctors  take  theirs — down. 

True  happiness  is  only  to  be  found  in  health, 
—health  of  mind,  health  of  soul,  health  of  body. 
With  that  clearness  of  mind  which  sees  the  just 
relative  proportion  and  importance  of  things; 
with  that  soundness  of  soul  which  keeps  a 
' '  conscience  void  of  offense  ; "  and  that  physical 
condition  which  makes  the  pulse  carry,  in  its 
swift  arterial  rounds,  an  actual  and  pleasant  ex- 
hiliration— a  man  is  in  his  true  estate— the  fullest, 
the  strongest,  the  happiest,  the  best,— and  can 
then  realize  the  benevolence  of  his  creation. 

We  are  shut  up  in  a  material  enclosure;  en- 
cased in  ''vestments  of  decay."  Our  outlooks 
are  through  material  organs. '  The  mind,  in  this 
world,  can  see  only  through  the  eyes,  can  hear 
only  with  the  ear,  feel  through  the  nerves,  think 
with   the   brain.       The   soul    is    caged,    and   must 


peer  through  its  bars.  Our  duty  is  to  keep  the 
cage  sound,  pure,  sweet,  well-conditioned,  in  good 
repair ;  else  our  sight  is  blurred,  our  outlook 
clouded,  our  imprisonment  joyless.  This  is  re- 
ligion ;  for  a  worrying,  impure  and  unhappy  soul 
cannot  be  expected  to  inhabit  such  a  home.  Our 
thoughts  go  forth  to  roam  the  universe,  but 
they  must  come  back  to  their  prison.  Even 
the  imagination  itself,  though  it  wing  its  way 
among  the  stars,  needs  to  start  from  a  health- 
ful home,  if  its  flight  is  to  be  pleasant  and  well- 
sustained  . 

How  it  will  be  with  us  when  this  mortal 
shall  have  put  on  immortality,  its  impedimenta 
dropped,  its  limitations  removed,  and  the  spirit 
introduced  into  a  more  fluent  world,  visiting 
perhaps  the  remotest  realms  of  what  we 
"call  space,  on  the  rays  of  a  thought  ;  and  sum- 
moning any  spirit  of  all  the  past  to  its  own 
presence  merely  by  a  wish — for  Swedenborg  an- 
nounces these  as  laws  of  the  spiritual  world, — 
we  cannot  now  know  with  certainty ;  we  can 
only  conjecture.  But,  while  here,  in  this  breath- 
ing world — subject  to  inexorable  physical  laws  ; 
knowing  that  fire  will  burn  and  w^ater  drown  ; 
that  steel  edges  will  cut,  and  rocky  points 
pierce,  that  dynamic  laws  are  invariable,  and 
collisions  will  bruise  ;  that  matter  is  stiff,  stub- 
born, intractable ;  that  gravitation  is  opposed  to 
flight  ;  that  the  infraction  of  law  brings  inevit- 
able penalty ;    that    bad    habits  will    induce  dis- 


ease — it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  recognize 
these  potent  actualities  and  accept  them,  and  it  is 
your  provice  so  to  guide  us  as  to  give  us  the 
benefit,  and  not  the  enmity  of  these  universal 
and   unyielding  decrees. 

How  many  men  who  have  spent  their  best 
years  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  or  wealth, 
would  gladly  relinquish  all  their  conquests,  to  be 
restored  to  that  fullness  of  enjoyment  which 
health  alone  can  give  !  I  can  point  you  to  men 
in  this  city  who  are  abundantly  able  to  give,  and 
who  would  cheerfully  stipulate  to  give,  a  million 
of  dollars  a  year,  for  the  rest  of  their  lives,  sim- 
ply for  the  free  use  of  their  own  limbs— whose 
impairment  has  come  through  the  race  for  what 
now  seems  of  such  small  value. 

Those,  therefore,  who,  for  the  good  of  their 
race,  study  the  laws  of  health ;  who  explore 
Nature's  pharmacopoeia,  all  over  the  world,  for 
powers  which  combat-  disease  ;  who  bring  the  re- 
sources of  the  laboratory  to  the  extraction  and 
combination  of  medicines;  who,  with  keenest 
knife  and  deftest  fingers,  search  the  mysteries  of 
the  human  body,  delicately  touching  its  tenderest 
nerves  and  highest  susceptibilities,  that  they  may 
be  educated  to  know  and  apply  the  quick 
remedy  ;  these  are  men — yes,  you  are  men.  for  it 
is  your  study— who  minister  in  the  very  temple 
of  the  body,  and  become  High  Priests  at  the 
altars  of  happiness. 

Sacred,     indeed,     that     temple    is.      Reverently 


should  we  regard  this  tabernacle  of  the  soul. 
Though  springing  from  dust,  and  returning  to 
dust,  it  is,  for  a  time,  held  worthy  to  be  a  tene- 
ment of  immortality.  It  takes  on  itself,  though 
it  may  be  obscurely,  the  very  lineaments  of  its 
spiritual  tenant,  which  shine  through  and  illumi- 
nate it.  No  wonder  Paul  declared  that  the 
body  is  for  the  Lord,  and  the  Lord  for  the  body, 
which  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was 
because  of  its  high  office  that  such  infinite  care 
was  bestowed  upon  its  organization,  forming 
outer  and  inner  channels  for  the  currents  of  life, 
and  its  network  of  myriad  telegraphs  as  avenues 
for  sensation.  It  has  been  the  abode  of  the 
worthiest  and  best  of  human  kind  while  dwelling 
on  the  earth.  In  such  a  form  Moses  dwelt, 
Isaiah  prophesied,  and  David  sang.  In  such  a 
form  the  beloved  disciple  lived  and  loved.  In 
such  a  home  Newton  studied  the  worlds,  Shake- 
speare clothed  the  most  varied  wisdom  in  poetic 
beauty,  and  Washington  showed  a  patriotism 
impregnably  armored  against  temptation.  Im- 
paradised  in  such  a  shrine,  fashioned  and  rounded 
into  swelling  beauty  by  the  hand  of  the  Al- 
mighty— the  last  and  choicest  work  of  creation- 
soft  as  the  touch  of  heaven,  and  thrilling  with 
the  tenderest  emotions,  have  dwelt  and  dwell  the 
sweetest  spirits  of  our  race,  without  whom  earth 
were  solitary,  and  man  left  without  a  motive  or 
an  inspiration.  But  crowned  with  glory  was  this 
temple,  and  rainbowed  with   an   aureole  from    on 


high,  when  the  Creator  infilled  it  with  the  full- 
ness of  the  Godhead,  and  made  it  the  theatre  for 
the  union  of  the  Human  and  the  Divine.  To 
keep  this  temple  in  order,  to  resist  the  invasion 
of  its  countless  foes,  open  or  insidious  ;  to  stand 
hy  the  integrity  of  this  structure,  as  it  comes 
fresh  from  the  hand  of  its  Maker,  is  the  exalted 
duty  to  which  you  devote  your  lives. 

If  men  differ  as  to  the  probabilities  of  its 
origin,  it  would  seem  that  those  most  familiar 
with  its  complexities  are  best  fitted  for  the  ex- 
amination of  the  question.  This  human  conti- 
nent, with  all  its  marvellous  possessions  and 
adaptations, —which,  even  now,  we  are  only  be- 
ginning to  comprehend, — how  came  it  here?  Was 
it  the  product  of  chance  ?  Was  it  self-evolved 
from  lower  forms?  Or  was  it  spoken  into  being 
by  the  fiat  of  a  God  ?  The  history  of  this  strange 
entity,— whose  conditions  and  relations,  whose 
preservation  and  well-being  is  to  be  the  business 
of  your  lives,— seems  pertinent  to  your  enquiries  ; 
and  its  importance  is  recognized,  when  a  faithful 
and  untiring  investigator, — who,  whether  we 
adopt  or  reject  some  of  his  conclusions,  never^ 
theless  reported  his  observations  with  abso- 
lute verity— has  been  so  lately  borne  to  his  rest, 
in  Westminster  Abbey — the  last  home  of  the 
famous — amidst  the  honors  of  his  country,  and 
the  tributes  of  the  world. 

Eeligion  and  science,  between  which  the  battle 
yesterda}r   seemed   so    threatening,    now    give  fair 


token  that  they  are  to  be  at  one.  Canon  Farrar, 
that  accomplished  writer,  said,  in  his  sermon  on 
Darwin,  whose  echoes  are  yet  in  our  ears:  "The 
fundamental  doctrines  of  religion  are  eternally 
true— the  fundamental  doctrines  of  science  are 
eternally  true.  Scripture  is  God's  Bible  written 
with  paper  and  ink.  Science  is  His  Bible  written 
on  the  starry  leaves  of  Heaven,  and  the  rocky 
tablets  of  the  world." 

While  here,  we  are  enveloped  in  mystery.  The 
soul  looks  out  from  its  imprisonment  with  eager 
questionings  : 

Why  was  not  man  endowed,  in  infancy,  with 
the  knowledge  given  by  experience,  instead  of 
gaining  it  only  by  rubs  aud  knocks,  contacts  and 
trials,  losses  and  diseases;  thus  obtaining  some 
little  light  only  at  the  end  of  life,  when  too  late 
to  be  available  ? 

Why  were  not  epidemics  of  contagious  health 
ordained,  and  diseases  made  incommunicable; 
wmereas  the  plague,  lurking  perhaps  in  the  tex- 
ture of  an  India  shawl,  may  even  cross  the 
seas,  and  set  up  business  in  a  new  country  ? 

Why  so  many  generations  of  suffering  through 
thousands  of  years,  ere  the  great  discoveries  af- 
fecting the  body  and  its  laws,  organization  and 
proper  treatment,  were  made  ;  ere  it  became 
known  that  the  blood  pulsed  through  all  the 
frame ;  that  nerves  existed ;  that  our  direst  foe 
might  be  counteracted  somewhat  as  prairie  flames 
are  fought  by  back-running  fires? 


Why  was  not  man  endowed  with  the  instincts 
in  which  some  animals  are  his  superiors,  of 
knowing  the  very  simples,  as  they  grow  in 
the  fields  and  woods,  which  meet  each  disease  ? 

Why  must  men  wait  for  Hippocrates, — for  so  I 
prefer  to  call  him, — Praxagoras  and  Aristotle,  for 
Celsus,  Pliny  and  Galen,  for  Hunter,  Harvey  and 
Jenner,  and  for  the  great  doctors  of  modern 
schools,  to  make  their  slow  and  hesitating  ad- 
vances, ere  they  could  have  the  benefit  of  these 
discoveries? 

Why  was  the  lancet  permitted,  under  the 
guise  of  cure,  to  let  out  so  many  lives? 

Why  such  agonies  allowed,  through  the  long, 
long  ages,  from  hurts  by  accidents  and  battles, 
and  from  acute  diseases,  while,  all  the  while, 
there  lay  close  to  the  hand  of  the  surgeon  and 
physician,  the  easy  means  of  pouring  a  grateful 
stupor  along  the  nerves,  and  rendering  the  most 
terrific  operations  painless? 

Why  did  chemistry  so  long  withhold  the  light 
it  was  to  shed  upon  the  various  processes   of  life? 

And  why  did  not  the  microscope  earlier  an- 
nounce its  minute  researches,  disclose  the  primal 
germs,  and  illustrate  to  the  eye  the  progress  of 
disease,  and  of  repair? 

But  no  answer  comes  to  these,  and  kindred 
enquiries.  It  still  remains  that  man  must  work 
out  his  own  knowledge  of  remedies,  as  he  must 
his  own  salvation.  So  may  it  come  to  pass,  in 
revolving    time,  that    the    ingenious    industry    of 


10 

your  profession  may  find,  in  the  limitless  labora- 
tory of  nature,  redeeming  forces  to  counteract  all 
the  ills  that    "flesh  is  heir  to!" 

There  is  no  pursuit  that  calls  for  a  wider 
study  or  a  tenderer  skill.  Chemistry,  leaving  its 
useless  search  for  the  philosopher's  stone,  and 
the  elixir  vitce,  has  become  your  servitor. 

Your  feet  must  be  familiar  with  all  the  range 
of  natural  history.  You  must  call  to  your  aid 
all  the  collateral  sciences  ;  every  clime  must  con- 
tribute of  its  growths  those  which  hold  the  magic 
power  of  healing.  Every  nerve  and  bone,  every 
muscle  and    tissue  in    the   cosmos    of    the  body, 

must   be  known  —  in  its   structure,    function  and 

* 

location.  If  not  good  linguists,  you  cannot  read 
intelligibly  the  writings  of  the  masters,  nor  han- 
dle your  own  technology  ;  the  vials  of  the  apothe- 
cary's shelves  would  be  an  unknown  wilderness. 
And  then,  most  responsible  of  all,  the  practical 
modes  of  operative  procedure — needing  the  quick- 
est perception  and  the  most  delicate  manipulation. 
A  dull  susceptibility  should  seek  some  lower  em- 
ployment— a  bungling  hand  should  go  to  the  plow 
or  the  anvil. 

What  though  these  studies  and  this  discipline 
demand  concentration  and  activity — for,  do  you 
not  remember  the  saying  of  your  own  .Doctor 
Good :  "  You  cannot  have  too  many  irons  in 
"  the  fire  ;  tongs,  shovel,  poker  —  keep  them  all 
"  agoing  !  " 

It  always  seemed  to  me  that  I  would  scarcely 


11 

dare  to  assume  the  duties  of  your  profession  — 
requiring  such  large  reading,  such  ample  expe- 
rience, such  high  courage,  quick  judgment  and 
sudden  use  of  all  the  powers.  When  entering  on 
my  own  calling  I  wTas  almost  deterred  from  prose- 
cuting it  by  the  keen  responsibility  for  my  clients' 
property,  which  might  be  perilled  by  some  mis- 
take or  inefficiency  of  mine.  And  yet,  it  was 
only  property  that  was  at  stake.  If,  instead, 
it  had  been  human  life,  I  must  have  drawn  upon 
my  utmost  courage  to  have  stood  the  ordeal.  I 
should  be  constantly  enquiring,  have  I  selected 
the  right  remedy,  ere  the  disease  shall  pass  all 
skill  ;  or  will  this  sharp  edge  be  so  surely 
guided  by  knowledge  and  a  steady  nerve,  as  not 
to  invade   or  wound  some   vital  part  ? 

Your  science  is  necessarily  a  progressive  one. 
It  may  not  stand  still.  If  it  had  been  appointed 
unto  man  to  suffer  from  only  one  form  of  disease, 
it  might  reasonablv  be  supposed  that  all  possible 
modes  of  meeting  and  treating  it  would,  by 
this  time,  have  been  known.  But  you  cannot 
count  the  ills  to  which  our  poor  humanity  is 
subject,  as,  from  time  to  time,  they  escape  from 
the  exhaustless  reservoir  of  the  enemy.  New 
diseases  come  into  being  with  each  generation, 
while  many,  too  many,  of  the  old  stand-bys  re- 
main. Consumptions,  it  may  be,  are  as  old  as 
human  lungs,  and  rheumatisms  have  an  ancient 
date.  We  hear,  all  the  while,  of  new  diseases  or 
new   names   of    diseases,    unknown   to    Chiron   or 


12 

Paracelsus ;  unknown,  indeed,  to  the  doctors  of 
our  youth.  Some,  perhaps,  under  new  nomen- 
clatures, may  be  the  same  old  foes;  but  there  are 
some  which  a  physician  of  fifty  or  twenty-five 
years  ago  would  have  been  utterly  inadequate  to 
handle. 

To  meet  these  new  forces  of  evil  requires  new 
remedies  and  adaptations.  And  I  suppose  it  to 
be  true  that  those  affections  which  spring  from 
the  more  refined  and  nerve-trying  modes  of 
modern  life  are,  if  not  more  acute,  yet  more 
difficult  to  cure  or  ameliorate.  So  is  your  study 
never  done;  it  is  "still  beginning,  never  ending/' 
and  to  every  student  there  is  the  hope  that  some 
discovery  may  come  to  him  which  shall  record 
his  name  amongst  the  benefactors  of  his  race.  If 
the  Eucalyptus  tree  shakes  health  from  its  leaves 
and  diffuses  an  atmosphere  that  banishes 
endymic  fevers,  then  why  may  there  not  be,  in 
the  woods  of  the  world,  a  protection  against  every 
contagion  ? 

And  now,  even  while  I  am  writing  this 
discourse,  there  comes  to  us  from  Berlin,  the  re- 
sults of  the  experiments  of  Dr.  Koch,  tracing 
consumption  to  a  parasitic  origin,  and  furnishing 
a  hopeful  augury  that  this  terrible  bane — which 
lays  low  one-seventh  of  the  human  family,  and 
has  hitherto  bidden  defiance  to  skill  —  may  now 
soon  be  confronted  with  a  triumphant  anti- 
dote. Certainly  no  other  subject  in  medical 
literature  is  now  looked  forward  to  with  such 
transcendent  interest  and  cheering  hope. 


13 

You,  of  the  city,  can  hardly  imagine,  I  pre- 
sume, the  hardships  of  the  practice,  at  a  former 
day,  in  country  settlements  and  villages.  Among 
my  early  memories  are  those  of  two  worthy  phy- 
sicians, the  field  of  whose  labors  was  at  Skaneat- 
eles,  "  loveliest  village"  of  the  lake.  These  were 
Doctors  Samuel  Porter  and  Judah  B.  Hopkins. 
Each  united,  in  himself,  all  the  departments  and 
specialties  of  Dentistry,  Surgery  and  Medicine, 
and  went  always  equipped  with  the  instruments 
of  torture  and  relief,  and  with  a  whole  materia 
medica  in  his  saddle  bags.  The  mode  then  in 
vogue  of  drawing  teeth,  making  [the  yielding 
and  sensitive  gums  a  fulcrum  for  the  merciless 
turnscrew,  and  when  the  sufferer  could  not  for 
the  moment  tell  whether  the  jaw  itself  was  for- 
saking his  cheek,  or  his  head  was  parting  from 
his  body,  seems  like  a  cruel  method  now;  but  in 
the  state  of  the  art  then  existing  was  the  only 
way.  The  farmer,  who,  it  is  said,  on  visiting 
the  town,  returned  with  the  offending  tooth  still 
in  its  socket,  might  well  have  congratulated 
himself  that  he  had  lost  the  memorandum  of  his 
errands  prepared  for  his  visit  by  his  faithful 
spouse. 

Of  all  the  instruments,  the  lancet,  came  into 
most  frequent  requisition,  and  oft  have  I  held 
the  bowl  to  receive  the  ruby  currents  that 
spouted,  now  from  brawmy,  and  now  from 
white  and  rounded  arms.  I  little  thought  that, 
before  such  an  audience,  I  should  ever  commem- 


14 

orate  the  virtues  of  old  Juba— a  horse  worthy  a 
niche  in  the  pantheon  of  quadrupeds— who  used 
so  often  to  be  saddled  or  harnessed  for  excur- 
sions of  miles  into  the  country  on  nights  of  Cim- 
merian darkness,  when  Fahrenheit  pointed  far 
down  towards  the  bulb;  when  fences  were  ob- 
literated by  the  immaculate  drifts,  or  when  the 
clay  seemed  fathomless  in  the  frost  upheavals  of 
the  spring;  and  the  good,  brave  Doctor  Hopkins 
would  go  out  into  the  wrath  of  weather,  on  his 
errand  of  mercy,  sometimes  to  splint  or  cut  a 
broken  limb,  to  minister  to  acute  distress,  or,  it 
might  be,  to  usher  a  young  immortal  into  life.. 
These  men,  and  such  as  these,  the  country  o'er,. 
were  the  true  heroes  of  practical  life,  worthy  of 
crowns,  and  who  have  never,  in  this  world,  re- 
ceived their  full  reward,  even  of  praise. 

The  tendency  in  modern  times,  to  the  restric- 
tion of  your  art  and  mine,  to  specialties,  must,  I 
think,  be  advantageous.  Time  was  when  a  law- 
yer had  to  embrace  the  entire  field  of  jurispru- 
dence —  the  subtle  principles  applicable  to  real 
estate,  with  its  contingent  remainders  and  execu- 
tory devises,  and  its  differences  between  the 
whole  of  an  undivided  moiety  and  the  moiety  of 
an  undivided  whole  ;  the  sea-broad  doctrines  of 
admiralty  ;  the  stubborn,  narrow  technicalities  of 
the  common  law  ;  the  rules  of  commercial  trans- 
actions ;  the  more  benign  administration  of  equity  ; 
civil  and  criminal  practice  ;  the  State  and  Federal 
jurisdictions ;    and  the  whole   code,    applicable  t& 


15 

all  the  dealings  of  life.  So,  as  I  have  already 
said  about  the  two  Skaneateles  doctors,  there  was 
no  field  of  medicine  or  surgery  they  were  not 
expected  to  fill.  And,  yet,  a  life's  study  may  well 
be  bestowed  on  single  organs. 

The  foot,  whose  beautiful  arch  upbears  the 
frame,  gives  elasticity  to  the  tread,  and  independ- 
ence to  its  owner,  may  well  reward  the  life-time 
devotion  of  those  who  select  it  as  a  specialty.  He 
of  the  healthful  foot  is  master  of  his  own  move- 
ments ;  may  scale  the  mountain  or  traverse  the 
plain;  may  seek  with  joy  the  city's  unyielding 
flags,  or  find,  indeed,  a  "  pleasure  in  the  pathless 
wood.  " 

The  mysteries  of  the  eye,  which  give  all  nature 
entrance  to  the  soul  —  now  a  painted  butterfly, 
and  now  a  twinkling  star — that  most  wonderful 
organ,  which  hails  the  "holy  Light,  offspring  of 
Heaven,  first-born;"  which  opens  the  world  of  lit- 
erature ;  which  recognizes  the  faces  of  friends ; 
which,  at  every  turn  and  angle  of  wakeful  life, 
comes  into  play,  and  without  which  no  morn 
would  dawn  upon  the  eternal  void — deserves  the 
complete  consecration  of  those  who  would  venture 
to  touch  its  most  delicate  and  mysterious  organ- 
ism. 

The  ear,  which  catches  with  equal  ease  the  soft 
murmur  of  the  summer  breath,  the  song  of  brooks 
and  birds,  the  sweet  touches  of  the  reed  or  the 
massive  diapason  of  the  orchestra,  or,  indeed,  the 
resounding  thunders   of    Niagara — or,    better  yet, 


16 

the  voice  of  friendship  and  the  "whisper  of  love — 
should  only  permit  its  porches  to  be  entered  by  its 
especial  priests. 

Nor  should  one  undertake,  without  peculiar  pre- 
paration, to  minister  (as  described  by  one  of  your 
order),  to  that 

"Cloven  sphere,  that  holds 
All  thought  in  its  mysterious  folds, 
That  feels  sensation's  faintest  thrill, 
And  flashes  forth  the  sovereign  will." 

He  would  be  a  bold  layman  who,  knowing 
only,  perhaps,  like  Hotspur's  lord,  that 

"  the  sovereign'est  thing  on  earth, 
Was  spermaceti,  for  an  inward   bruise," 

should,  in  speaking  to  your  profession,  think  it 
safe  to  venture  out  beyond  the  edges  of  his  sub- 
ject :  or  who  should  not  keep  a  vigilant  eye  for 
escape  behind  the  fortress  of  some  acknowledged 
generality.  And  yet,  perchance,  some  gleam 
may  strike  the  view  of  one  standing  outside  the 
circle.  Thus  you,  looking  from  a  different  angle, 
might  give  some  useful  suggestions  to  my  own 
profession  ;  perhaps  rebuke  our  sometimes  un- 
seemly wrangles  ;  our  too  vociferous  and  prolix 
addresses  ;  or,  at  least,  teach  the  proper  education 
of  those  muscles  and  vocal  chords  which  give 
volume  and  cadence  to  articulated  speech.  All 
science  is  so  at  one,  and  springing  far  back  from 
the  same  general  principles,  that  each  department 


17 

and  division  may  feel  kindred  with  all  the  others, 
in  the  unity  of  a  common  parentage. 

Were  I,  a  layman,  to  formulate  the  best  and 
most  comprehensive  rule  of  health  and  comfort, 
gathered  from  my  own  observation,  I  should  define 
it  as  "the  rule  of  not  too  much  ;"  a  rule  of  uni- 
versal application — to  food  and  drink,  to  work  and 
play,  to  excitement,  enjoyment,  exposure,  study, 
recreation  and  repose,  to  medicine — to  everything. 
In  the  exuberance  of  youth  we  think  our  supply 
of  life  unlimited,  and  draw  upon  it  as  on  a  bank 
that  cannot  break.  So  universal  are  the  violations 
of  Nature's  laws,  from  infancy  to  age,  and  in  every 
age,  that  none  can  contradict  me  if  I  express  the 
fancy  that  almost  every  healthy  child  is  born 
with  an  endowment  of  near  a  century  of  vital- 
ity, which  he  may  retain  or  forfeit,  may  expend 
or  husband,  as  he  chooses  ;  may,  if  he  will,  so 
keep  and  use,  that  wearing  out  evenly  at  every 
point,  he  may,  like  the  deacon's  masterpiece,  col- 
lapse all .  together,  as  the  clock  shall  strike  an 
hundred  years. 

Many  think  that  they  can  habituate  themselves 
to  hardships,  and  toughen  their  bodies,  as  the 
schoolmaster,  as  some  of  us  may  remember,. 
used  to  harden  his  birches  in  the  hot  ashes. 
But  they  learn  sooner  or  later,  that  the  mus- 
cles are  not  wrought  from  scrap  iron,  nor  the 
nerves  from  gutta-percha  :  and  that,  ere  the 
process  of  hardening  is  completed,  they  are 
nests  for  stitches,  cramps  and  rheumatisms,   and, 


18 

with  the  gift  of  barometric  prophecy,  become 
the  heralds  of  the  storm.  Thus  it  often  hap- 
pens that  infant  weaklings,  by  care  and  nur- 
ture, carry  a  long  life  within  their  breasts, 
while  many  a  sturdy  bantling,  in  Iris  pride  of 
constitution,   surrenders  by  the   way. 

Some  suppose  that,  through  athletic  exercises, 
they  may  guard  the  citadel  of  life  by  knots  of 
swelling  muscles  and  keep  the  enemy  at  bay, 
but  find  that  they  have  drawn  to  the  outlying 
extremities  the  very  juices  of  life,  and  left  the 
vital  organs  vacant  and  unnourished.  The  late 
Dr.  Winship,  though  upholding  on  his  shoulders 
two  thousand  nine  hundred  pounds — rivalling  old 
Milo  in  his  muscle — yet  fainted  in  the  presence 
of  an  audience,  and  quit  his  hold  of  life  at  an 
early  age.  Indeed,  is  it  not  true,  that  the  av- 
erage English  statesman,  say  of  70  years, 
whose  exercise  has  been  judicious,  but  whose 
intense  life-work  has  been  with  his  brain,  is 
fresher,  more  erect  and  exuberant,  and  in  better 
possession  of  all  his  powers,  than  the  American 
farmer,  though  ten  years  younger,  with  his  con- 
tinuous exercises  in  the  field  ? 

Excess  of  study  is  an  equal  infraction  of  law; 
sadly  illustrated  in  the  recent  instance  of  the 
young  clergyman  of  Pennsylvania,  who,  with 
exceptional  qualities  of  intellect,  memory  and 
temperament,  yet  set  himself  such  tasks,  that 
with  unthroned  mind  he  is  now  a  wandering 
wreck. 


19 

Nor  is  too  much  rest  a  compliance  with  na- 
ture's plan;  for  then  rust  sets  in  to  disintegrate 
the  very  fibres  of  health.  Better,  even,  the 
brightness  and  thinness  of  overwear,  than  the 
dull  oxidation  of  disuse. 

If  we  present  a  friend  with  the  memento  of  a 
golden  circlet,  to  keep  the  hours,  wound  up  for 
a  day,  with  its  buzz  of  whirling  wheels,  and  its 
complication  of  activities,  how  carefully  he  lifts 
the  crystal ;  he  turns  his  very  breath  aside,  and 
dares  not  touch  its  inner  mysteries.  But,  make 
him  master  of  himself — a  machine  of  infinitely 
more  varied  and  delicate  organism — made  by  God 
instead  of  man — wound  up,  it  may  be,  for  a  cen- 
tury ;  with  adaptations  and  forms  too  minute  for 
the  highest  powers  of  the  microscope  to  unveil ; 
and  capable  of  a  dual  life,  and  through  which 
spiritual  consciousness  can  manifest  itself,  uniting 
Heaven  and  earth  in  one  organization,  and  lo  ! 
how  rudely  he  handles  it ;  carrying  it,  in  the 
boldness  of  adventure,  to  the  Equator  or  the 
Pole;  now  in  the  burning  sands,  now  barriered 
by  icebergs;  subjecting  it  to  sudden  shocks  and 
continuous  strains,  to  unremitting  toils  and 
habits  of  evil,  in  the  very  phrensy  of  reckless- 
ness ! 

The  romantic  Harp,  with  its  vibrant  and  sen- 
sitive chords — that  form  of  beauty  which  comes 
down  to  us  laden  with  poetic  fancies,  from  the 
Judean  King  to  Tara's  halls — who  would  think 
of  subjecting  it   to  alternations  of  heat  and  cold, 


20 

of  dryness  and  moisture,  in  hopes  to  improve 
or  even  retain  its  tone  and  resonance  I  And 
yet  that  Harp  of  a  million  strings,  as  Dr. 
Watts  would  sing. — attuned  for  supernal  as  veil 
as  earthly  airs. — is  tossed  about,  beaten  with  bars 
and  mercilessly  treated,  as  if  it  were  made 
merely  for   combats  and  collisions. 

How  much   easier  and  better   to  preserve   than 
to   cure  !      How   much    pleasanter    to   the  patient 

and  to  the  physician  i  If  it  could  come  to  pass 
that  your  regular  services  should  be  invoked 
to  teach  us  how  to  live:  how  best  to  nourish  this 
wasting  frame  :  under  what  conditions  to  work  ; 
how.  and  how  much,  to  play  ;  the  best  mode  and 
tim  of  rest ;  and  how  best  to  breathe,  that  the 
vital  air  may  carry  vigor  throughout  the 
system — so  that  your  studies  may  be  directed 
not  so  much  to  the  modes  of  restoration  as  to 
those  of  healthful  preservation — then  should  Ave 
have,  instead  of  a  generation  of  complaining 
feebleness,  one  of  robust  and  jocund  health  ; 
painting  roses  on  the  cheek,  giving  lustre  to  the 
eye.  timbre  to  the  voice,  elasticity  to  the  muscle, 
making  all  things  enjoyable,  every  movement  a 
luxury :  women  of  fulness  of  beauty  ;  men  of 
sturdy  power  :  and  so  continued  through  the 
years  while  they  now  surrender  to  the  assaults 
of  disease  and  age.  I  find  these  thoughts  con- 
firmed   by    one    of    your    own    brethren. — whose 


21 

hand,     with     equal     skill,     guides    the     glittering 
knife  and  strings  the  tuneful  lyre,  who  sings  : 
"And  lo  !  the  starry  folds  reveal 
The  blazoned  truth  we  hold  so  dear  : 
To  guard  is  better  than  to  heal, — 
The  shield  is  nobler  than  the  spear." 

Young  Gentlemen  :  you  have  had  the  benefit 
of  the  wisdom  of  the  past.  Men  of  science  and 
experience  have  laid  their  knowledges  at  your  feet. 
The  recorded  observations  and  reflections  of  the 
advance  men  of  your  calling  have  been  studied, 
commented  on,  enlarged,  enforced  and  illustrated 
by  your  instructors.  But  you  are  not  to  be 
content  with  this.  You  will  find  that  Gibbon 
was  right  when  he  said,  in  his  autobiography, 
that  every  man  who  rises  above  the  common 
level  has  received  two  educations — the  first,  from 
his  teachers;  the  second,  and  by  far  the  more  im- 
portant, from  himself.  I  assume  that  you  are 
not  the  men  merely  to  travel  a  beaten  road  be- 
cause it  is  beaten;  but  that  you  will  observe, 
think,  explore,  for  yourselves;  that  you  will  use 
your  present  attainments  merely  as  vantage 
ground;  that  you  will  not  rest  on  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  past,  but  make  them  the  stimuli  for 
further  acquirements.  The  advantages  were 
never  so  great,  the  field  never  so  ample,  as  now. 
The  recent  and  great  discoveries  of  M.  Pasteur- 
adding  so  much  to  what  the  world  already  owes 
to   France— who.  it  is  said,   "has  seized  the  Angel 


22 

of  Death,  put  it  under  the  microscope,  discovered 
the  laws  of  its  existence,  and  taught  how  to  escape 
from  its  fatal  influence ;  and  who  is  now  en- 
gaged in  Tracking  typhoid  fever  to  its  lair, 
and  searching  into  the  nature  of  hydrophobia,'- 
— these  show  yon  how  the  prospect  widens. 
New  problems  continually  arise  upon  the  solu- 
tions of  the  old  ones.  Every  new  discovery  and 
advance  broadens  the  area  of  vision:  hence,  at 
this  very  clay,  standing  on  the  mount  of  the 
magnificent  discoveries  in  your  science,  there  yet 
throng  into  the  field,  and  stand  up  all  around 
the  horizon  of  the  future— as  it  is  in  every  de- 
partment of  life  —more  perplexing  problems  than 
ever  before. 

The  faculty  most  eminently  required  for  the 
successful  practice  and  advancement  of  the  heal- 
ing art — and  peculiarly  applicable  to  that  art — is 
that  of  Observation.  Some  men  are  born  observ- 
ers. Others,  again,  do  not  know  how  to  begin 
to  observe.  And  yet  it  is  only  thus  that  Nature 
can  be  explored;  and  it  is  only  by  studying  Na- 
ture that  men  can  learn.  They  cannot  invent: 
they  can  only  follow.  We  must  go  to  her  home 
and  workshops:  learn  her  materials  and  how  she 
handles  them.  We  must  trace  her  back,  by  the 
microscope  and  all  other  aids,  to  her  primordial 
elements. 

The   royal   road   to    positive     knowledge    is   ob- 


23 

servation.      When  Agassiz,   the  prince    of    natu- 
ralists, took  possession  of  Penikese   Island, 

"Ringed  about   by   sapphire   seas," 

given  to  him  by  John  Anderson,  the  prince  of 
merchants,  the  first  words  addressed  to  his  first 
class  were:  "My  intention  is  not  to  impart  in- 
formation, but  to  throw  the  burden  of  study  on 
you.  If  I  succeed  in  teaching  you  to  observe, 
my  aim  will  be  attained.  I  do  not  wish  to 
communicate  knowledge  to  you;  you  can  gather 
that  from  a  hundred  sources — but  to  awaken  in 
you  a  faculty  which  is  probably  more  dormant 
than  the  simple  power  of  acquisition.  Unless 
that  faculty  is  stimulated,  any  information  I 
might  give  you  about  natural  history  would 
soon  fade  and  be  gone.  I  am,  therefore,  placed 
in  a  somewhat  difficult  and  abnormal  position 
for  a  teacher.  I  must  teach  and  not  give  inform- 
ation. The  methods  of  investigation  you  apply 
here  will  enable  you  to  examine  the  same  sub- 
jects wherever  you  live.  So,  put  away  all  your 
books.  Nature  is  our  only  text-book  here.  This 
school  is  to  be  distinguished  from  all  others  as 
being  the  school  without  books,  the  school  of 
Nature,  where  pupils  are  to  learn  by  experi- 
ment. I  only  want  to  prepare  you  to  observe 
for  yourselves.  Explore  the  island  and  pick  up 
specimens."  "What  shall  I  pick  up?"  one  asked. 
"Anything,  and  find  out  what  it  is!"  One 
day    an   advanced    pupil   brought  him   a  piece   of 


24 

coral,  worn  smooth,  saying,  "I  have  been  exam- 
ining this  two  weeks,  and  1  see  nothing/' 
' i  Break  it  open  !  "  He  did,  and  a  new  universe 
flashed  on  his  sight.  He  had  long  been  a  stu- 
dent and  teacher  of  natural  history.  Now  his 
education  began.  Thus  on  Penikese  Island  this 
high-priest  of  Nature  revolutionized  the  method 
of  teaching  natural  history   all   over  the  world. 

Neither  the  physician  nor  the  surgeon  does  his 
work  alone.  There  is  an  occult  power  standing 
ready  to  help  him.  He  is  to  put  himself  in 
line  to  invoke  its  aid.  This  is  the  Vis  Medicatrix 
Naturae.  He  is  the  best  physician  and  surgeon  who 
follows  its  lead.  Nature  stands  anxiously  wait- 
ing to  come  to  his  assistance.  She  summons  all 
her  forces  to  the  rescue.  It  is  yours  to  do  what 
you  can  to  give  her  a  fair  chance.  It  is  a  grand 
thing  to  be  able  always  to  lean  on  Nature.  If 
properly  invited  she  is  sure  to  hold  her  powers 
for  you.  How  best  can  you  remove  obstructions 
and  clear  her  path  ?  Give  her  an  opportunity  to 
knit  the  broken  bone,  and  all  her  activities  are 
astir.  Cat  the  affected  flesh  and  bring  together 
the  healthful  parts,  and,  with  her  tissued  loom, 
she  weaves  them  into  perfect  reunion.  If  cir- 
culation is  impeded,  help  the  great  vital  pump 
to  send  its  ruddy  flow  from  artery  to  smallest 
vein,  till  the  whole  clay  is  moistened  with  its 
life.  Under  all  circumstances  see  how  best  you 
can  invoke  the  Vis  Medicatrix  Naturae,.  This  is 
the  secret  of  your   art. 


25 

But  Nature  will  not  work  so  well  against  the 
disposition  and  fears  of  the  patient ;  and,  there- 
fore, it  calls  for  no  small  portion  of  your  skill  to 
make  the  patient  mentally  receptive.  A  cheerful 
hope  is  a  part  of  Nature's  power.  The  tie  which 
unites  the  material  and  the  spiritual  is  as  yet  un- 
detected. It  eludes  the  keenest  knife,  the  closest 
scrutiny.  How  the  soul  lives  within  the  body, 
vitalizing  and  informing  it,  is  the  great  enigma 
for  future  solution.  Is  it  an  association  or  an 
infusion  \  If  the  soul  permeates  every  portion  of 
the  body,  then  how  is  it  that  a  rude  touch  at 
single  points,  piercing  the  heart,  arresting  the 
lungs,  injuring  that  vital  knot,  the  medulla,  so 
quickly  dissolves  the  partnership  forever  ?  Your 
savants  have  taught  us,  indeed,  where  the  im- 
pingement is  most  imminent,  and  where  the 
very  throne  of  thought  is  reared.  They  have 
shown  us  that,  to  the  grey  matter  of  the  brain, 
all  impressions  are  conveyed  by  a  system  of 
telegraphic  threads  so  invisibly  minute  that  a 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  them  would  only 
equal  a  cord  of  the  diameter  of  a  pencil  : 
and  that  a  nerve  influence,  generated  by 
ganglionic  batteries,  is  signalled  over  these  high- 
ways at  a   speed  of  about   200   feet   a  second. 

I  have  often  thought  how  strange  it  is  that 
the  countless  telegraphs  and  telephones,  the  mi- 
crophones and  photophones  of  the  human  sys- 
tem, which  carry  and  report  their  constant  mes- 
sages,— which    let   in    the    beauty  of  creation  to 


26 

the  eye,  the  harmonies  to  the  ear,  the  flowery 
fragrance  and  the  delicacies  of  taste,  and  all 
sensation,  should  converge  and  be  carried  through 
the  slender  alabaster  column  of  the  neck,  thus 
reaching,  reporting  to,  and  returning  with  an- 
swer from,  the  regal  Court  of  the  Brain,  some- 
what as  all  the  innumerous  railroads  and  tele- 
graphs of  the  mighty  South,  and  of  the  mightier 
Southwest,  of  this  great  country,  do  and  must 
converge,  and  carry  their  freightages  of  mate- 
rial product  and  mental  communication,  through 
a  narrow  isthmus  of  an  adjoining  city,  and  re- 
port them  here,  to  the  head  and  brain  of 
American  navigation. 

But  it  yet  remains  unknown  how  this  nerve 
influence  becomes  transmuted  into  conscious  in- 
telligence. It  has  not  yet  been  permitted  to 
man  to  take  this  step.  Beyond,  there  is  no 
hint  or  explanation.  Who  knows  but  he  may 
be  amongst  you  who,  by  some  fortunate  ex- 
periment or  intuition,  may  find  the  nexus? 

This,  at  all  events,  we  know,  that,  so  inti- 
mate is  the  union,  that  mind  and  body  act 
and  interact,  advantageously  or  disastrously, 
upon  each  other.  They  are  deeply  and  mutual- 
ly interested  and  potential  in  the  welfare  of 
each.  This  interaction  opens  an  affluent  field 
for  the  future  conquests  of  medicine. 

Was  there  not  a  basis  of  truth  in  the  theory  of 
Georg  Ernst  Stahl,  when,  two  hundred  years 
ago,    he    claimed     that    the    moving    power    and 


27 

guiding    principle    of  the  human    body,    was  the 
soul;    that     its     influence    was    recuperative    and 
superintending;    guarding     against     injuries,    and 
when  they   occur,    taking  the   best   means  of    re- 
pairing them;  being    the     common   source   of    all 
motion,     of  all    secretion,     and    of    all   the    vital 
actions?    So   far  is  this   true,   at    least,    that,    to 
a  large  extent,    the   mind   may  aid,    or  may  hin- 
der,    the     efforts  of  the   vis  medicatrix    natures. 
Perennial  good  nature,    the   absence  of  fear    and 
fret,  the    acceptance    of    all     situations    amiably, 
is   a  habit   of  mind     which     lubricates    the    phy- 
sical   machinery,   and   may   hold  back   the    years 
by    a    decade.     The    habit     of    looking    forward 
with  hope,    and  not  backward   with   regret,    is   a 
great     agency     of    health.     Many     instances     are 
recorded,     besides    that    of    Marie     Antoinette, 
where  a  single  night   of  terror  has  blanched  the 
hair.      Ill  news,  and  sometimes  even  good   news, 
by  the  very   sweetness   of  its   excess,    has  struck 
the  recipient  dead,    and  no  autopsy  could  reveal 
the   wound.     The  dart  passed  through  the  heart, 
like    an    arrow    through     the    air,    and    left    no 
trace,    though    it    effected    an    eternal    separation 
of  flesh  from  spirit. 

We  know  that  the  mind  may  sometimes  so 
arouse  itself  as  to  expel  disease.  I  knew  a  law- 
yer who,  I  think,  held  on  to  life  for  twenty  years 
by  the  sheer  force  of  will— somewhat  like  that 
Englishman— was  it  not  Sidney  Smith  ?— who  said 
that  he  had  long  survived  his  Constitution,  and 
was  now  living  on — the  By-laws. 


28 

An  Irish  farmer,  of  some  eighty  years  of  age, 
who  tills  a  little  ground  of  mine  in  the  country, 
was  sought  out  not  long  since,  in  his  field,  by 
some  politicians,  and  persuaded  to  visit  the  polls 
on  election  day.  To  exercise  this  high  privilege 
of  the  elective  franchise,  Dan  Larkin  must  needs 
array  himself  in  fitting  costume,  which,  however, 
was  less  protective  than  his  working  wear  against 
the  bleak  November  day.  A  terrible  cold  set  in, 
and  made  straight  for  a  vital  point.  Intolerable 
pain  ensued,  and  he  was  removed  to  a  neighbor- 
ing city — four  miles  away — for  treatment.  His 
three  physicians  agreed  that  he  was  past  all  hope; 
but  they  had  not  calculated  on  the  restorative 
action  of  his  will;  for  his  keen  sense  caught  the 
incautious  words  of  the  younger  attendant,  say- 
ing, "I  should  like  to  cut  him  up."  When  they 
retired,  the  old  man  rolled  out  on  the  floor,  sum- 
moned his  landlady,  ordered  a  wagon,  wTas  lifted 
into  it,  and,  ere  he  reached  his  home,  was  sensi- 
bly relieved.  A  perfect  cure  ensued,  with  entire 
exemption  since.  On  my  asking  what  cured  him, 
he  replied,  "An  Irtish  mad  came  over  me."  So 
intense  were  his  mental  emotions,  I  suppose,  that 
they  gave  a  new  impulse  to  his  blood,  impelled  it 
through  its  obstructed  channels,  revolutionized  his 
condition,  and  started  anew  the  rusty  wheels  of 
life. 

JEsculapius — now  still  more  honored  than  in 
his  own  time,  since  he  has  become  the  doctor  of 
all  nations — seemed  to  attach  great  importance  to 


29 

celestial  help;  for  when  his  cases  passed  beyond 
the  modesty  of  his  pretensions,  he  used  to  take 
them  to  the  altars  of  the  Temples  of  the  Gods, 
and  there  implore  divine  aid,  where  humanity 
was  too  weak  to  help.  Without  a  consciousness 
of  human  weakness  there  can  he  no  faith  in 
higher  agencies. 

May  it  not  be  true,  that  the  subtler  influences 
that  surround  us  in  this  universe,  are  by  far  the 
most  important,  the  less  resistible,  and  the  more 
determinate,  than  all  others  which  we  call  physi- 
cal motors?  And  may  it  not  be  that,  in  the  do- 
main of  the  imponderable  and  the  invisible,  the 
ultimate  triumphs  of  medicine  will  find  their 
home;  and  that,  step  by  step,  you  will  grow  to 
be  better  healers,  the  closer  you  shall  have  studied 
the  arcana  of  the  human  form,  in  its  associa- 
tion with  the  higher,  the  ideal,  the  spiritual,  the 
eternal  existence  of  man  ? 

While  your  profession  has  its  special  cares,  la- 
bors and  anxieties,  so  has  it  peculiar  rewards  and 
consolations.  Yours,  the  privilege  of  ameliorating 
human  suffering  from  life's  beginning  to  its 
close,  You  preside  at  its  advent,  you  administer 
at  its  departure.  The  physician  of  long  practice 
can  say  of  many  a  man,  of  many  a  woman,  as 
Grattan  spoke  of  the  independence  of  his  coun- 
try, "I  sat  at  its  cradle,  I  followed  its  hearse." 
And  during  the  progress  from  birth  to  age, 
through  the  sparkling  vivacity  of  youth,  through 


30 

the  sober  and    freighted   years    of    manhood,  and 
in  the  days  when  the  hold  on   earth    is   relaxing, 
and  the  "grasshopper  is  a  burden,"  it  is  yours  to 
ward  the  pain,  to  lighten   the   woe,  to   cheer  the 
exit.     The    good    physician     may    take    joy,    not 
only  in  the   cures  he  has   wrought,    but    in    the 
comfort  he  has  diffused.     The    pulse    of    the  pa- 
tient  quickens   at  his   ring.     His   voice  is   music, 
his  presence  balm.     He  is,  himself,  medicine  and 
restoration.     To     have     such     wishes    attend    his 
steps,    such  hopes  herald  his  approach,  such  ben- 
efits   wait    on  his    skill,    should    make    him   feel 
the   blessing    of  his   mission    and    the  benignity 
of    his   art.     To  him  shall  come  the  consolations 
of  age  with   especial  charm,    in  the   reflection  of 
the  gloom  he   has  dispersed,    the   sorrow    he  has 
alleviated,    the    good  he  has    accomplished.     And, 
down   at   the  bottom   of    things,    in  the   very   es- 
sence of    our    lives — however    the    selfish     man, 
whose  care,    and    thought,     and    labors  are    cen- 
tered on    himself    may    doubt    if    life    be   worth 
living — lie  cannot  doubt,  who  has  learned  that  the 
best  and  real  use  of  life  is  to   benefit   others   and 
make  them   happy. 

Gentlemen  of  the  Faculty  : 

The  arch-enemy  of  mankind, — against  whom 
you  are  the  army  of  embattled  warriors, — has,  of 
late,  here  and  abroad,  been  quite  busy  in  your 
shining  ranks.  But  he  has  taken  none  more  re- 
spected   and   honored,  none   whose   life    has    been 


31 

more  useful,  none  who  furnishes  a  more  encour- 
aging example,  than  the  late  Doctor  James  Eush- 
more  Wood.  The  service  he  has  rendered  to  De- 
monstrative Surgery ;  the  opportunities  he  has 
furnished,  by  the  legislation  which  he  induced,  to 
pursue  investigations,  where,  alone,  knowledge 
can  be  obtained  ;  the  agency  he  had  in  inaugu- 
rating courses  and  systems  of  practical  education, 
in  his  beloved  art ;  the  affections  of  his  long  line 
of  students,  who  bear  him  in  their  hearts  ;  the 
energy  and  persistence  by  which  he  overcame  the 
adverse  circumstances  of  his  youth  on  the  road  to 
eminence,  make  it  seem  appropriate,  at  this  first 
meeting  after  his  transit,  to  lay  our  appreciative 
and  commemorative  offering  upon  his  tomb. 

Gentlemen  Graduates  : 

Retaining  ever,  a  love  for  Alma  Mater, 
and  a  fond  remembrance  of  your  Instructors ; 
keeping  bright  the  chain  of  friendship  which 
has  been  wrought  between  you  and  your  asso- 
ciates, here;  may  you  go  out  into  the  world, 
equipped  with  all  that  is  now  known  in  your  art, 
— which  is  the  greatest  and  best  of  all  the  arts, 
since  life  is  the  only  thing  in  the  Universe 
that  can  interest  a  human  being,— disciplined 
in  those  habits  of  labor  and  observation, 
which  will  carry  you  far  beyond  ;  resolved  to 
learn  and  do  what  you  can,  to  relieve  the  afflict- 
ions of  mankind  ;  studying  how  fresh  resources 
may  be   gathered,  and    how   aid    can   be   invoked 


32 

through  the  finer  essences  now  so  little  known  ; 
with  no  jealousy  of  any  mortal  man  because  he, 
also,  may  do  something  for  our  common  human- 
ity ;  and  determined,  wherever  your  lot  may  be 
cast,  to  do  a  man's  work  in  the  great  conflicts 
against  the  powers  of  evil.  So  may  you  go  on 
to  final  triumph,  and  the  blessings  of  a  life  well 
lived,  be  your  coronal. 


[3473] 


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